One of the great things about living in almost always sunny and 75° Southern California, is that we basically get to exercise outdoors 365 days per year. If you like to keep it simple, you can just exercise in your own neighborhood. For some good ideas on how to make a neighborhood walk a real fitness boost, see Back to Function Health & Fitness Home Exercise Program. But, what about the adventurous among us who want to exercise outside, but a neighborhood walk isn’t quite enough?

Your solution could come in the form of local fitness circuits scattered throughout the area. These are somewhat rare, as they require local city maintenance, but there are a few really good ones in our area. They are typically found in local city parks and make a leisurely stroll a real fitness challenge and the best part, they are free!

The fitness circuits are typically spread out into a variety of stations that work different parts of the body and usually have signage that illustrates the exercise and gives the number of reps that are recommended. The great news is that you barely ever see anyone using these fitness stations so you won’t have to wait your turn to get a great workout completed.

Here is a list of some of the (South Bay) fitness circuits I have located (listed from easiest to more competitive)

Sunnyglen Park (Torrance)

Pros – equipment well maintained, easy parking along street

Cons – short course in a small park, no restrooms

Delthorne Park Advance Fitness Course (Torrance)

Pros – nice rubberized path in areas, maintained restrooms

Cons – equipment broken at some of the stations, small parking lot

Street Workout Park (Manhattan Beach)

Pros – nice wood-chip path right along the busy main street close to cafes and restaurants

Cons – busy parking during peak beach season, traffic, no restrooms other than at a few parks along the path

Palos Verdes Parcourse Fitness Circuit at the Palos Verdes Cross Country Course

Pros – easy parking, equipment well-maintained, challenging course with beautiful ocean views

Cons – no restrooms unless little league in session

Note: I would like to make this list as complete as possible, so if you know of more fitness courses please send me a message so I can check it out and add it to this list.

Currently, my favorite fitness circuit is the PV Parcourse. I have run a number of workouts at this course for my youth & pro athlete groups in our summer sessions over the years. It is usually almost devoid of people, and the drive along PV Drive has the most awesome ocean views! Parking is easy at the Lunada Bay Little League baseball fields, and the course is a very well manicured dirt & wood chip trail with 10+ challenging fitness stations. I typically do a quick warm up before embarking on the fitness circuit. Here is the warm up I use:

QUICK WARM UP

After you warm up, leave the baseball field parking lot on foot and turn left onto the wood chip trail and very quickly you will come to the first station. The sign calls it “Log Hop”, which would be a fairly challenging exercise, but since I have used this fitness circuit for many years, I have modified some of the stations to make it a little more challenging!

Check out the video to see which fitness stations I use on this cross country course. Warning: the hill in the middle is a toughie!

DRS. CHAD, SUSAN & LOLA AT THE PV PARCOURSE

I hope you get a chance to try the PV Parcourse, or one of the other fitness circuits in your area. Maybe Lola and I will see you there!

Disclaimer: make sure you have been cleared for exercise by your healthcare professional before starting an exercise program

If you need assistance with a fitness or nutrition/weight loss plan, please call us at 310-534-1900 or email [email protected].

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